The Non-performativity of Protest Politics and the Erotics of Resistance with Prof. Nikita Dhawan

When: Fri 24 Nov 2017 - Sat 25 Nov 2017Where: SALT, SOAS

Protest movements in different parts of the world evoke promises of radical political change through shaming powerful states and international institutions into good behavior. However, the question remains, how effective are these fantasies of radical change through “hashtag activism” in fundamentally transforming social, political and economic relations in the era of postcolonial late capitalism? Prof. Nikita Dhawan examines the romantic enthusiasm evoked by these movements and how they erase the exploitative and exclusionary material conditions that make possible the exercise of agency of the protesters. Prof. Dhawan engages questions of how spaces of resistance themselves produce exclusions thereby complicating any easy understanding of power, agency and vulnerability.